The board of one of Sydney’s biggest hospitals is under fire after losing more than $24 million on the share market using money extracted from trust funds procured from public donations and federal government research grants.

An independent inquiry has been called for by senior doctors at St Vincent’s Hospital after finding about $80 million dollars that was utilized to buy high-risk bonds which is similar to the kind used for initiating the global financial crisis last year in the United States.

Doctors are very angry since they feel that the research papers might now be cancelled and donors will be disappointed to learn that their money has been lost.

The National Health and Medical Research council prohibits its grants, used for some other purpose than specified in the approved project, and demands them to be returned if the research is not carried out.

The president of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (NSW), Tony Sara, said, “We can't have hospitals gambling away vital funds. Staff specialists have undertaken research on the understanding that this money was secure. For them to now turn around and find out that that's not the case is disappointing to say the very least.”

He said that an investigation must be started by the government.